While most of us are still sampling the joys of pandal hopping during Durga Puja, one small pandal in Kolkata is creating history of sorts. The Udyami Yubak Brinda Durga Puja, just off Joy Mitra street in north Kolkata in partnership with Pratyay Gender Trust, a local transgender persons’ collective, will be the first in the country to worship a ‘transgender’ Durga deity during the regular puja festivities.
The committee’s puja idol is fashioned after ‘Ardhanarishvara’, or half man and half woman – an androgynous form of Shiva and Parvati. One dozen transgender women from Pratyay have formed the puja committee.
This Ardhanarishvara Durga is possibly the first such idol in the 300-year-old history of Durga pujas in Bengal. “This shows how Shakti, the female principle of God, is inseparable from Shiva, the male principle of God,” says artist China Pal, who has designed the idol.
China Pal, also happens to be the only woman artiste of Kumortuli, north Kolkata’s traditional potter’s quarters. One half of the idol has a moustache, a pectoral instead of a breast, smaller eyelashes, and a dhoti (traditional male garment tied around the waist). The other half is the female Durga idol, usually seen at puja pandals.
“The idea is to explore the gendered lines within the traditional framework,” explained Anindya Hajra, one of Pratyay’s founder members, in an email to HuffPost India. “We are conscious how sites of worship and associated rituals have Brahminical associations and often act as a site of misogyny, prejudice and violence. Ours is an attempt to question these practices and caste/class structures and to cross gender lines.”
However, while the androgynous form of Shiva and Parvati, Ardhanarishvara, maybe a popular iconography in south India, this representation is not as widely celebrated in Bengal. Which is why, when the members of Pratyay Gender Trust and Udyami Yubak Brinda Durga Puja committee in Kolkata decided to use the Ardhanarishvara as the idol during Durga Puja, they were a little apprehensive about “rocking the boat too much”.
“We are going against the conventions by helping the local club organise the puja. Activities that are traditionally male-dominated – the theme, marquee decoration, collection of subscription, puja committee formation – will see the participation of transgender community,” added Anindya Hajra in an interview with Indian Express. This puja, which has a budget of Rs 1.5 lakh, has been organised by the self-help group of transgender persons.
Image via Pratyay Gender Trust/Facebook
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